As he hurried out of the room, he glanced at another exposition and it caught his eye, compelling him to return and read it. Wilderness is Waste, or God's architecture? The bible insists we waste not our talents or resources, as in the Parable of the Talents, and yet it menaces that "...if you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it vomited out the nations that were before you" (Leviticus 18:26, 28). Isn't mankind's greatest talent that of conquering the untamed frontier and creating from the wild thorns magnificent structures such as longhouses, castles, and skyscrapers? What jealousy is God's that He may dazzle mankind by His awesome creation but prohibit the exploitation of it? We are but plastic models laid upon the earth to embellish those greens valleys and rivers; a shepherd boy that guides his sheep through those dales He watches as we do an orchestrated school of fish, more so if the shepherd steers men and not cattle. "The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine; with me you are but aliens and tenants" (Leviticus 26:3-4). Don't forget, we are strangers upon the land where we were born; ne'er must we conceive that we can distort the landscape, else we shall be punished by the fury of the all-powerful. Then I forsake this God! If He shall strike me down with thunder, then I shall first build a lightning rod to counter it!
The boy frowned; he couldn't quite understand the meaning of the passage, but the tone alerted him to a presence of rebelliousness and ill-fate. |